Stephen A. Smith has made his opinion on the Tyreek Hill situation clear: He believes both sides are to blame.
Following the release of the body cam footage of the confrontation between Hill and the Miami-Dade Police, Stephen A. believes the Miami Dolphins wide receiver must take accountability for how he acted when pulled over.
“When it comes to Tyreek Hill, we also can’t let him completely off the hook based on the statement that was made by the police department,” Smith said.
“They said he was ‘uncooperative.’ We have a responsibility on this show and any kind of platform that we have to make sure we’re doing what we can to save lives. To make sure that we’re doing what we can to ensure that somehow, some way, you get to live another day and fight that battle. We know how wrong they were. The police were excessive, no excuses, they should be ashamed of themselves, the way they acted, they just went overboard, totally true.”
Here’s the clip:
Smith went on to criticize the police more for how they treated Hill’s teammate Calais Campbell and Jonny Smith, who had stopped at the scene, before adding some more thoughts on Hill’s behavior.
“Here’s the problem, we all came on the air seeing the initial footage in complete, unadulterated support for Tyreek Hill. You pull over, they tell you to roll down your window, what’s the first thing Shannon [Sharpe] just talked about? The first thing they do when they pull us over, when they pull me over, all my windows are down, my hand’s on the steering wheel, that is not what Tyreek Hill did,” Smith said.
“Tyreek Hill had his window up, the officer knocks on his window, he didn’t bang on his window he knocked on his window, you hesitated to pull it down, the first thing you say is, ‘Don’t bang on my window like that.’… He asks you for your driver’s license, you hesitated to give him your driver’s license. You said in the postgame conference, ‘Hey, y’all, what if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ What if you aren’t Tyreek Hill? What would have happened to you if somebody that wasn’t Tyreek Hill kept the windows rolled up, hesitated to roll it down, didn’t give you the license immediately when you asked for it, and then hesitated to get out the car when they told you to get out the car?”
Smith concluded by saying there is “no way” the officers should be excused for their actions and that Hill did not deserve to be dragged from his vehicle, but that the 30-year-old wide receiver should have been more compliant.
“When they pull up on you and they tell you to roll down that window, and they tell you to give you your driver’s license, and they tell you to get out that car, that’s what you got to do,” Smith said.
Hill was given two driving citations.
